For owners of F45 Westmount, community matters as much as the workout
Alan Lei and Ellen Tso’s story didn’t start as business partners — it started with a part-time retail job. Tso was recruiting staff for Abercrombie & Fitch when she approached Lei with an offer, and in hopes of an employee discount (or perhaps a date), he accepted. More than a decade later, the couple is juggling multiple careers and raising a daughter while running the Westmount location of F45 Training together. For this couple, success isn’t measured by the number of members enrolled, but by the impact they make on each one that walks through their doors. We caught up with the couple to talk about surviving a pandemic mid-launch, the unglamorous side of entrepreneurship, and what keeps them showing up for their community every day.
What inspired you to become F45 owners, and why did this feel like the right fit for both of you?
Alan: I was always passionate about fitness. Growing up, I was physically active playing soccer, running track, and doing martial arts. After I met Ellen we would work out together and do outdoor activities. I work in the nuclear medicine department at a local hospital and our healthcare system is really good at diagnosing problems and helping people to manage or treat ailments, but we could do better at educating people on how to prevent these issues in the first place. Fitness and nutrition are great tools to prevent disease, so my vision to help others motivated me to start this business in the first place.
Ellen: I was working really long hours in retail management and found that I was struggling to get to the gym regularly. I was having a glass of wine every night to destress and I wanted a change, so we tried one of the very first F45 gyms in Edmonton. I began to look forward to the accountability and having that 45-minute class in my schedule. We started as members and saw the value. We knew we wanted to start a family one day and my hours were crazy, so long term, something had to change. We wanted a business that we could build, make our own schedules and of course, incorporate fitness into our day-to-day lives. Both Alan and I had had other gym memberships, but the community at F45 is different. We came for the workouts and we stayed for the people. We wanted to be a part of building that community.
What’s one lesson entrepreneurship has taught you that you didn’t expect?
Alan: We didn’t expect a worldwide pandemic, that’s for sure. That was a big surprise. We were planning to open and then the lockdowns came. That was something that was not part of our plan so now, we plan things carefully and are very intentional in our decisions because things can change at any moment.
Ellen: I learned that entrepreneurship is definitely not as glamorous as people hype it up to be. It’s not all rainbows and butterflies where you’re sitting back and counting money. Our community is more successful when we’re more involved. We get the most traction and positive feedback from the members when we are there because they like to see the owners being committed, working out alongside them, and supporting the team.
What excites you most about the future of your business?
Ellen: Being able to connect with more business partners in the community is really exciting and there are also some F45 races and events that are coming up that I am looking forward to. More of our members are competing and so now, we’re competing as a community. I love seeing our community expand beyond the four walls of the gym. I am also just excited to see how our members continue to evolve. I remember this one member who couldn’t complete a burpee when she started with us, and now she is supporting other members and competing in her third HYROX race in Vancouver this year.
What are you feeling most grateful for these days?
Ellen: I’m grateful that at 38, this is the strongest I have felt in my entire life. I feel better than I did in my 20s and even in my teenage years. I am also so grateful that my daughter gets to grow up in this environment and that we’re setting a positive example for her to prioritize her own health and fitness. She is four and she knows how to do a lunge and do burpees. She watches us race and she cheers for us with her signs. I’m very grateful she gets to experience this and see it as part of the normal way of growing up.
Alan: I agree and am definitely grateful that I can be a role model for my daughter. I am also grateful for the people that we’ve met, the community, all the members who became our friends. I’m grateful for meeting all these wonderful people and seeing how our members come together to support each other.
Finish this sentence: “Success, to me, means…”
Ellen: Success to me means being able to make a meaningful impact on anybody we’ve crossed paths with. If someone looks back on their own health and fitness journey, and remembers us playing a positive role — whether it’s small or large — that feels like success.
Alan: For me, the number of members we have is less important than the impact we have on our members. It’s the members who have become our friends, or who have made friends at the gym. It’s the members who joined us and could barely get through a station on their first day, now crushing their workouts. We have members who have lost significant amounts of weight, gotten off their blood pressure medication or are the most fit they have ever been in their lives. All that points to success.
